For kids or technology?

It sounded like good economic news when the Virginia Department of Social Services recently received $38 million in federal stimulus funds to boost its childcare program for low-income working families.

But the state’s decision to spend more than half of the money on 1) a technology project and 2) an enhanced childcare rating system caused consternation last week among local child care and social services professionals.

At a time when they are seeing many middle-class folks slip into poverty, Culpeper’s DSS officials feel the stimulus funds for child care should be entirely used to help people right now – not to modernize systems and programs that might help them in the future.

“This is ridiculous,” said Dorenda Pullen, director of Culpeper County Child Care, a human services program that provides care for about 1,000 children annually, of the $14 million portion of stimulus funds that the state wants to use to create an automated system for tracking payments to child care providers. “This is one-time money the state is using to purchase a wish list item.”

Redundant system
In Culpeper, a child care assistance specialist tracks government subsidies to independent providers, she said, adding that the state cut back on fraud positions last year to save money and to put more of the financial monitoring responsibility back on localities. “Well, we are doing this,” Pullen said.

She characterized the $14 million plan for an automated tracking system of state childcare payments as “redundant” and a “one time purchase” that she could understand before the recession hit.

Another $6 million from the stimulus award would expand Virginia’s Quality Rating and Improvement System — an on-site assessment program aimed at improving early childhood education facilities and processes.

Neither initiative addresses today’s recession, Pullen said, saying the entire $38 million would be better used helping the many families on statewide waiting lists for child care subsidies.

The state plans to use $18 million of the stimulus funds over two years to expand subsidies and reduce the local funding match from 10 to 5 percent.

Who’s in need?
Most of the children on waiting lists for child care assistance live in Richmond and northern Virginia, according to Virginia DSS. But they live in rural areas as well.
In Culpeper County, 175 families, including 300 children, receive childcare subsidies, according to Pat Recker, a daycare social worker with Culpeper DSS. Families qualify based on income, receiving financial assistance to help pay for childcare while parents are at work or job training, she said.

Another 54 families — including 97 children — are on the waiting list due to lack of funding.

The stimulus award, if used in its totality, could help many more families navigate this rough economic period, Culpeper officials, including Human Services Director Calvin “Chip” Coleman say. The longtime advocate of accessible childcare for the working class feels there has to be a better way than the state’s current plan of spending.

“We appreciate what we get,” he said of the pending local award for additional child care subsidies, “but during times of severe recession when families are struggling to just get by, I’m not sure spending $14 million on a computer system is the right approach.

“But that’s just my opinion,” Coleman said.

Recession impacts families
Pullen agreed.

“I just finished meeting with two families that are exiting Head Start and don’t know how to make it next year because of additional money problems they are facing and needing assistance with childcare,” she said. “I have been referring (them) to DSS’s waiting list, which is growing, but (I’m) not sure how many (we) will be able to serve.”

Families once considered middle-class are now at the threshold of the federal poverty level, Pullen said.

In a letter to the governor, Verdia Haywood, president of the Virginia Association of Local Human Services Officials, concurred with Culpeper, encouraging complete use of the stimulus funds to help income-eligible families now by reducing childcare subsidy waiting lists and improving reimbursements for providers.

“Because of the national recession, many individuals previously not seeking financial assistance are doing so now to meet basic family obligations,” Haywood said in the letter.

Recker said Culpeper had not yet received notice from the state of the amount for childcare subsidies through the recent stimulus award.

State stands by decision
Marianne S. McGhee, VDSS spokeswoman, said Thursday that Culpeper would receive “supplemental allocation based on a standard formula for all localities.” She said actual figures were being worked on, but that localities would receive the funding for implementation by fall.

She defended the state’s formula for use of the stimulus funds, calling it “a win-win situation” that addresses additional family needs during this economic downturn while also investing in the future.

McGhee said the automated childcare payment tracker would improve efficiency, potentially saving the state up to 10 percent or $12 million annually.

“This will certainly benefit Culpeper families and those from every locality,” she said. “As an agency, it is our responsibility to take the necessary steps to plan effectively for the needs of families. We would be negligent to this miss this opportunity.”

In a March 27 memo, VDSS Commissioner Anthony Coyners Jr. underlined the need to computerize the childcare subsidy program, saying it is the department’s only public assistance initiative that is not automated.

The current paper-driven system “is fraught with potential for error and risk of fraud,” he wrote in the memo. “Since we are all committed to every dollar being used to best benefit needy families, especially in tight budget times, we abhor loss of funds to error or waste,” Coyners said.

‘People before things’
But Culpeper’s State Senator Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania, stood by Culpeper, saying, “more of the $38 million should have gone to families and a lesser amount to technology.” At the same time, he added, using part of the stimulus funding “to shore up a terribly antiquated tracking system … makes some sense.”

“As with all stimulus funding, it’s a two-edged sword,” Houck said.

Being that the funds are one-time, he explained, it creates expectations among recipients that maintaining the benefits of the new programs “sets up an obvious disappointment down the line when the money goes away.”

All in all, added Houck, a 25-plus-year state senator, the stimulus funding allocation is “a decent compromise,” helping people while also correcting “a systemic technology problem.”

“I disagree with the share allocation,” he repeated. “People should come before things.”

Federal money now, state obligation later?
Nearly 55,000 children and 31,000 families across Virginia are already benefiting from the child care subsidy program this year, according to Coyners’ memo, totaling about $124 million in local, state and federal dollars. The state sends money to local social services departments, which pay child care professionals directly.

Culpeper’s State Del. Ed Scott, R-Madison, could not comment in detail on the childcare funding controversy, saying the administration had not provided the General Assembly with an update on “the stimulus spending.”

“It is possible that like much of the federal spending that we have received, there are concerns about expanding programs that would become state obligations as soon as the federal dollars disappear,” he said, echoing Houck.